Sticking Pot Stickers Together at Ganso and Lotus Blue

Recently, FiTR has been spotting a new form of dumpling presentation. We don't know if it yet constitutes a trend, but it certainly results in a more-attractive app, a superior consistency of cooking from dumpling to dumpling, and a bit more of the crunchy crust that you buy pot stickers for. They might temp you on their looks alone, but they taste great, too and it's a way for restaurants to elevate their output slightly above the usual discount dumpling stall or cart.

At ramen newcomer Ganso in downtown Brooklyn, the "crispy gyoza" come with a chile-soy dipping sauce, and the pale wafer that sticks the dumplings together seems to be based on a batter flowed around the carefully aligned dumplings, which are stuffed rather conventionally with pork and chives.

At year-old Tribeca restaurant Lotus Blue--the city's third Yunnan restaurant--the pot stickers filled with either pork or wood-ear mushrooms seem to have been pressed into the leftover dough, which had been rolled into a sheet. The dumplings have to be torn apart, rather that cracked apart, as in the Ganso version.

There you have it, a new technique applied to either Japanese or Chinese dumplings. Has anyone encountered this anywhere else?

When the edge is flipped over, you can see how the individual dumplings are connected in the dough.